A linear cutter is a surgical tool that staples and cuts tissue to transect that tissue while leaving the cut ends hemostatic. A typical endocutter receives at its distal end a disposable single-use cartridge that holds several rows of staples, and includes an anvil opposed to the cartridge. The cartridge typically includes drivers positioned under the staples. The surgeon orients the end of the endocutter around the tissue to be transected, and compresses the anvil and cartridge together to clamp the tissue. Then, wedges advance into the cartridge, sequentially pushing the drivers upward, and the drivers in turn drive the staples upward against the anvil. Rows of staples are deployed on either side of the transection line, and a blade is advanced along the transection line to divide the tissue. In conventional surgical staplers, it is important to maintain a substantially constant gap between the anvil and the cartridge for proper staple formation. A staple urged outward from the cartridge or other staple holder is designed to encounter a staple pocket or other feature in the anvil at a certain point in its travel. If the staple encounters that staple pocket or other feature in the anvil too soon or too late, the staple may be malformed. For example, if the gap is too large, the staple may not be completely formed. As another example, if the gap is too small, the staple may be crushed. For this reason, a particular conventional linear cutter can only accept a cartridge with a corresponding particular staple size. Inserting into that linear cutter a cartridge holding larger or smaller staples, if that were even possible due to the size differential in the staples and staple drivers, would cause incomplete formation or malformation of those staples.
The use of the same reference symbols in different figures indicates similar or identical items.